Update on Hepatitis A Management —Reply

In Reply We agree with Dr Weng and colleagues that the risk of acquiring hepatitis A in certain occupational settings is low. We mentioned this consideration in our JAMA Insights article because certain public health bodies deployed vaccination of food service workers in the setting of an outbreak. However, we acknowledge that this is not standard practice and that the efficacy of such interventions is unknown. Second, we agree that health care workers who work in settings that provide services for injection and noninjection drug users are not at higher risk of acquiring hepatitis A as noted in the most recent ACIP recommendations. Because these recommendations were published concurrently with our article, they were not incorporated in our review. Nevertheless, the updated guidelines consider hepatitis A virus vaccination in settings that provide services to adults where a large proportion of persons have an increased risk of hepatitis A infection, including “for persons (e.g., residents and staff) in facilities where hygiene is difficult to maintain (e.g., group homes for persons with development disabilities, and homeless shelters).”
Source: JAMA - Category: General Medicine Source Type: research